A Walk in the Park

Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day--one of the last three days of beautiful summery weather before it takes a turn early this week.  Craig took Jacob to his basketball game, and I decided Carter and I were going to make the most of the day by going for a little walk.  After some debate about where to go, I decided on Turning Point Park, which was actually (coincidentally) literally a couple minutes around the corner from Jacob's game.  The park runs along the Genesee River just south of where it empties into Lake Ontario.  I'd seen lots of intriguing pictures of it over the years and part of me had always hesitated to go by myself because it's technically in the city and I didn't know if there were more remote areas that might get unsafe at certain times of day.  But I figured on a day like this, there would have to be enough people around--even though that degree of safety might also mean we had to stay masked at times.

The fall color was pretty apparent right as we arrived.  There were a few trees like this one near the parking lot.

The path wound around high above the river before turning into a steep slope down.

The one section of trees across the way was gorgeous.

There is a long wooden walkway that meanders across the "turning point" section of the river.  It's hard to tell in this picture but it curves to the left before curving back to the right all the way to the edge of the picture to head back on land.

There were a couple round areas that boats could tie up to that made great photo spots.

The water near the walkway was full of algae and lily pads.  It was pretty gross but that area didn't get a lot of wake from boats so it was essentially standing water.  I've never been there to know if it's always like that or if this was more than usual.

The "turning point" is actually a large section of water that's big enough for big freighters to literally turn themselves around.  There is a giant concrete company barge that comes through this way frequently, and I've seen video of it turn here.  I guess maybe it can go backward up the river for a bit to get to this point, but then it's just better to turn it around here?  Regardless, it's quite the sight in the middle of an otherwise standard-looking river.  The area across the way had some pretty foliage, and up the hill beyond it was a big house.  

The walkway had sea grass or reeds of some sort on either side at one point, which made cool sounds in the wind and looked pretty neat when they appeared to stretch on forever.

We saw all sorts of interesting nooks along the way.  I liked this one that looked like a little portal to a wooded hideaway.

This giant fungi ball was probably the size of Carter's head.  A little creepy but cool.

As I was taking the fungus picture, Carter said, "Look, there's a snake!"  For a second I thought he was kidding since he'd been talking to squirrels and making up stories as we walked.  But no, there it was, a couple feet away from me!

We watched it slither up the hill away from us.  He wasn't that big but I wasn't about to get too close!

There were a couple dirt paths that veered off the paved path, and at one I noticed this interesting spot a few steps in.  Those are steel beams sticking out of a tree.  It was hard to tell what they were from.  There were train tracks just over a berm from here, so I wondered if there was some sort of railroad equipment here and somehow before whatever it was got dismantled, a tree grew around it.  I've seen trees do that with fences, but this was really amazing to see.

The path had some really pretty twists and turns, and with the leaves changing and the sun shining, it was really scenic.  

As we headed back there were a bunch of rocks right before the wooden walkway restarted, and I had Carter hop up.

I was excited about giving my new iPhone (Craig's hand-me-down) its first real test drive on this walk.  Turns out the zoom isn't really any better than my old phone, but the portrait mode is pretty fun. 

Note the new gap in Carter's teeth on the right side...another baby tooth down!

Since the zoom on the phone wasn't great, I was happy I brought my real camera (it's not obsolete yet!) when we started watching the birds.  There was a whole section of birds at the turning point that were just hanging out in the water.  

All those little dots in the water left of center are birds.  They seemed unphased by the boats passing by.

I caught this cool pic of what I think is a gray swan flapping its wings.

Pretty sure this one is a blue heron...

There were also a lot of white swans.  This one had its wings up in an interesting way as it swam. 

Off in the distance (but sadly behind the trees when we were further down the river) was this big boat.  It looked like it was once some sort of tour boat, like a booze cruise type of ship.  Now it looks basically abandoned, but it's interesting that it's still in the water rather than drydocked.

Just had to get a selfie with my boy, who was a trooper for the 2.5 mile walk...

This picture really doesn't do it justice, but this was the steep walk back up to the path that led to our car.  I know it just looks like a straight path curving off in the distance, but if you train your brain to see height here, it really was that high and steep.  I felt a little bad for the dad we saw at the top who was pushing a double wide stroller in the opposite direction.  I imagine it would be hard to keep control going down, and it would be a heck of a push to get it back up, even empty.  Carter and I were both huffing and puffing a bit when we were done!

Back at the top there was a nice overlook view as well...

The balls on the power lines were actually one of the first things Carter noticed when we pulled in the parking lot.  Sad to say there are enough helicopter searches for missing people along the river that those are a must-have.

We grabbed a treat on the way home (a $1 Freeze as usual) and headed back to meet up with Craig and Jacob, whose team won to earn a spot in the championship game next week.  We decided to do a free-for-all dinner pick-up (with a stop at a beer store for something Craig wanted), and this was the gorgeous sky while we waited at one of our pick-up stops.

Pretty as it was, the hot pink ball of setting sun just before it was probably even more spectacular.  I just never got to a good spot for a picture.

Anyway, even if Carter wasn't super excited about our outing, I had a great time with him and it was definitely the kind of afternoon I needed.  Nice weather, pretty leaves, and some new scenery can work wonders!

Muddling Through

Well, so much for that fresh start.  We're now nearly three weeks into the school year and we seem to be hitting a bit of a wall.  I still think it's probably a lot better than the challenges of the free-for-all that was summer around here, because there's a lot less yelling and not as much frustration with how certain people are spending their time.  But Jacob has been complaining about being tired all week (to the point that I'm asking him if I need to take him for a COVID test or a boatload of bloodwork), I had another rough week of work, and I already feel like two days a week in school for Carter is not nearly enough.  

I'm a little worried about Jacob, but he has no other symptoms and it's possible that the early mornings have started catching up with him after months of sleeping in.  Of course he won't go to bed earlier, so I'm feeling at a bit of a loss on how to proceed.  He still has enough energy to play some basketball, however, so whether it's just a ruse to get a day off ("But mom, the other kids are staying home for a day...") or whether there's more to it, I just don't know.  He said he felt better after sleeping in a bit this morning, but we'll see how he's doing after his game today.  He seems to like school a bit better this year, definitely on the days where most of his friends are in his class, and he seems unphased by all the COVID changes so far.  I periodically see these flashes of a mature, responsible kid and it's pretty amazing...until he forgets to do homework until after bedtime or complains about something that just isn't changing.  It's very much a roller coaster with him.

Carter's learning is going reasonably well, all things considered, but I know he gets more out of in-school days and two days of that doesn't seem like enough.  Right now Wednesday and Thursday when he's home feel like they take forever to pass before he goes back to school.  It all just feels very choppy and inconsistent.  His days at home essentially consist of two short live video meetings (but only one on Wednesday) and a handful of at-home assignments through their learning app.  The app is a pain but we're slowly adjusting to the best ways to use it.  We try to give a lot of breaks in between assignments to manage his attention span and the wiggles.  Sometimes it's very hard to get him to focus on a task, but we're managing, especially if there's two of us, but it normally takes a full-on work break for me to get him through an assignment, because otherwise the questions and problems are endless.  As such, it took a while to get caught up on all of the stuff that got assigned last week and it took effort to stay on target this week.  I think it's hard because either his attention span, patience, or skill level get the best of him.  He's a great reader but if the passage is too long he instantly feels overwhelmed.  His spelling is iffy and when you add a lack of typing skills to that, writing takes forever.  He's also still not very good at being creative with what he writes or how he completes certain activities, so there's a lot of prompting to get him to answer with some effort.  For example, we had to do this cool name thing (had to be as long as him!), and while he was able to do some of it, he needed a lot of guidance for understanding which materials might work best for each letter and how to use certain materials to form the letters properly, because those visualization skills are still coming along.  It's just hard at this age to do the work independently.  I truly believe that peer pressure in class is a key contributor to getting challenging kids to stick with things, and right now that's lacking three days a week.

Pardon the picture quality - we took it (awkwardly from the steps) on his laptop so it was easier to upload to the app, and the laptop camera quality is not great and the image is opposite what you think so positioning is hard!  He used a Slinky (and figured out on his own to anchor it with balls), Hot Wheels cars, magnetic tiles, Pringles cans, stuffed animals, and a mini bat and baseballs.  His teacher liked it so much she highlighted it during a live meeting!

Even with two days a week with fewer interruptions, doing my work from home is still hard.  I had a ton of work to do this week, and while I got it done eventually, I know on home school days in particular I'm a shadow of my former self.  In-school days are better, but there are still distractions and I've decided my entire mindset is simply different in the office.  At bible study on Wednesday, someone mentioned that at-home church just doesn't evoke the same emotions for them that being in church does, and I think it's much the same with work.  It's partly the process--the work and dedication that it takes to get yourself there and sustain yourself all day--and also being in a distinct space where your body and brain are simply trained to function differently.  Home has so many distractions in either case, and it's just not a space where you typically tune home stuff out and focus strongly on something else.  It's both a physical and mental thing, and it's still hard to overcome six months later.  Maybe I should start dressing up and see if I can trick myself?

I think I'm compensating for the stress by controlling whatever I can in other areas.  Last weekend was a major project-based one, from finally getting a middle support for some sagging curtains and setting up fall decor to cleaning up clutter piles and creating a set of hooks for our masks.  I bought new masks at Old Navy for me and for the kids (I wasn't sure who they'd fit better--turns out Carter, but Jacob could wear them if he had to), and the additions made a single hook of storage no longer an option.  We didn't have a lot of spots to hang them near the door in our line of sight, so I needed to create something that would work with that same single hook we'd been using.  It had to fit between our coats and bags.  I saw a really funny saying on Pinterest that I wanted to include, and with a vague design in my head, I ventured out to the Walmart craft department to see what I could find.  The end result used two wooden box "canvases" (hollow boxes without backs) that I knew I could screw little eye hooks into to create a tiered hanging base.  I already had those little screw-ins (the kind you use on picture frames you hang with wire) on hand, and figured I could connect everything with twine or ribbon.  This was the end result:

Since the fronts of the boxes weren't thick like the edges, I decided screw-in hooks for the masks themselves wouldn't work.  I picked up some Command hooks, grabbed some twine, and called it good.  I had paint on hand at home and used a silver Sharpie and a gold gel pen for the lettering.  It says, "Not today, COVID.  Not today."  I lettered our names by each set of masks so Craig wasn't constantly asking whose masks were whose.

It's simple, but it gets the job done.  It's very satisfying to get ready to leave the house and know whose masks are where, or to have a quick reference on whether masks need to be washed or not.  I'm very happy with how it turned out.  Like I've said, it's the little things right now.  I went to Target Wednesday night after bible study, on the off-chance the fifth time would be the charm and I could finally get another set of Jacob's masks after weeks of false "in stock" statuses in the app.  Not only did they finally have the all-black set, but I randomly found a pair of super cute casual slip on shoes (Vans-style, in a beige quilted pattern) for about $7.  I repeat, the little things.

After a very rough day on Wednesday (work and school), all I really wanted was to finish up work and go enjoy the gorgeous day outside.  Craig took both boys to Jacob's basketball training since they wouldn't be home before I had to leave for bible study, so I had a few minutes to sit outside and soak up the sun.  Aside from the creepy discovery earlier in the day of a dead skunk in our yard (and the fact that something subsequently moved it and tore it to pieces), I was very much enjoying the foliage and the warmth.

At the same time, Craig caught this great picture of Carter...

Speaking of Carter, he lost one of his front side teeth (second from center) last night so his smile is officially starting to turn into that awkward bigger kid smile full of odd spacing and teeth of varying sizes.  He had his school picture prior to that last week but told me he forgot to take off his hoodie, so perhaps the "new" smile will end up immortalized if I feel I need to have him do retakes.

I guess the only other thing of note is that fall seems to be arriving a bit more rapidly than usual.  Cold nights and a dry summer are apparently accelerating the leaves changing.  The other day I saw a lovely red tree, and it sort of took my breath away, but not for the reason you'd think.  It really hit me in that moment that fall is here, and an entire summer went by without the usual fanfare.  No trips, no beach, no reunions, few parties, and barely any mini golf or ice cream outings.  Around here we wait so long for summer to arrive and we use the heck out of it, but this year was a bit of a lost opportunity.  I mean, it's odd because my furloughs meant that we were all home and I spent lots more time outside--in the pool, on the porch, tending to my flowers and garden--which was way better than most years where I'm inside almost all day until after dinner.  But the quality of the memories made is different.  We just didn't have those "wow" moments or the continuation of the traditional events we're used to.  So seeing the fall leaves really drove it home that summer has passed and we have a whole nine months to wait again...and who knows if things will be back to normal by then or not.  It's hard.  I had to stop at my office the other day to pick up a shirt from the 5K I participated in, and it broke my heart a bit to see certain areas on the commute that I know turn gorgeous colors in the fall, because I know that I won't see them this year, definitely not daily and likely not at all.  I hope we'll be able to do the pumpkin patch this fall so we salvage at least a few traditions, but we're still not sure what Thanksgiving might look like or how everything else might be affected as the weather gets cold.  Now that schools have been open more than a couple weeks and cases haven't skyrocketed, I'm hopeful, but the bigger test will be when everyone needs to take their meals and parties indoors more regularly.  It's not going away, at least not until a vaccine and natural immunity combine enough to reduce its chance of finding a host, so we still can't let up.  I've definitely made my peace with masks, now more than ever, as it still seems like the best chance we have of living normal lives until things can really get back to more of an "old normal".  If I can do 80% of what I could before, that's okay to me if it means keeping us safe.  I miss work, I wish Carter could go to school more, and I know everyone is still missing movie theaters and mask-free gym time.  We're actually going to try (masked) church tomorrow.  But much more about life feels normal right now than it did four months ago, so for that I am grateful.  

That said, October is less than a week away and I'm sort of in shock over that.  I saw a meme the other day that said, "January, February, Quarantine, December" and that's basically how this year feels--a couple normal months followed by one big block of weirdness.  It's crazy to think how all these months have passed with so few milestones and highlights.  You'd think all of the other changes we've been through would help with the passage of time, but instead it's all just a bit surreal.  One day we left work and school, and things were never the same again.  I hope that means we'll all appreciate normal whenever we get back to something that resembles it--like how kids seem to appreciate being back in school again--but it all seems so far away still.  One day at a time has definitely been my mantra, and it's still true.  But I guess for now we'll try to load up on cider, donuts, and pumpkins, and hope for the best.

Fresh Start

I have to say, the past week and a half has been a bit of a breath of fresh air.  Don't get me wrong, it's brought with it a new set of stresses, but at least it's something different in the midst of a long stretch of "same".

The start of school is usually extra stressful, and this year that's actually been a bit less intense.  There hasn't been the same tidal wave of paperwork, and because we're not rushing to make buses or doing drop-offs directly en route to work, the new routine has been a little easier to get into.  Jacob still has to be out of the house every day at the same time as before, but we've been splitting drop-off duties and unless I am intent on showering beforehand, I only have to wake up just enough at 6:30 to make sure Jacob hears his alarm, and then I can go back to bed for a bit until I need to get dressed and/or make his lunch prior to him (and maybe me) getting out the door by 7:30.  I have enjoyed getting back to our one-on-one commutes, but it's a little odd coming back home instead of going to the office.  Carter only has to be up and out by 8:40 twice a week, and beyond that just has to be at his computer by 9:45 on other days.  So, overall, not bad.  It's nice to have a little bit of a routine back even if it's sort of wonky and hard to follow from day to day.

Here are a couple shots from Carter's first in-person day on Tuesday:

Drop-off is a bit more methodical and elaborate this year, plus there are lots of people avoiding the bus, so we had time for a car selfie while we waited.

Of course, the first full week of school also coincided with the week from hell on the work side, for both of us.  Craig had the NLL draft on Thursday, which meant a lot of prep and in-office time leading up.  I had a very busy week full of work drama and two late nights, one of which was while Craig was at the draft.  It made it hard to do almost anything around the house in the evenings, but at least I was home during the day to keep things like laundry moving...assuming I remembered amidst the chaos that it was in the washer or dryer at all.  Carter's home schooling has made my work focus go in the toilet even more than it was before, but luckily most people on our team are also dealing with their own version of it to some degree.

I will say that the school schedules made for more challenges in that we've had to be mindful of times almost constantly.  Being aware of car rider pickups has been a new one, and while it's not too bad to get an afternoon break (as we've tried to minimize bus rides, but the trip to get Jacob has gotten old very fast, so we started allowing the bus most days), it does break things up when you're trying to focus.  It's even worse on at-home days for Carter because you have to balance his video chat times and helping him on his assignments, since it's usually either that he's lacking motivation or the assignments are super complicated.  We finally got access to the remote learning app this week, while I can see how it could be cool, it's not as intuitive as I'd like.  It does have narrations of all of the directions, but the assignments themselves are multi-step and tend to get a bit confusing.  The interface is also a little clumsy so I think Carter usually spends more time trying to get it to do what he wants than he spends doing the kind of learning they intend for him to be doing.  He needs a lot of direction and motivation, so either someone needs to sit with him or I'm back and forth from my desk chair over and over.  Because the access took a couple extra days, he's still catching up on a handful of projects assigned over the course of the week, which makes it hard since he's not getting much of a rest this weekend.  It's been a challenge but I'm hoping it gets easier.  On the bright side, he seems to like his teacher so far.  As for Jacob, he is pretty much living for his "B" days where his friends are in his classes, but overall I think he's happier than he lets on to be back.

Aside from the lack of sleep and the constant paranoia that I'm missing an appointment, deadline, or household task (like ordering prescription refills or ensuring masks and uniforms are washed), the transition has been easier than I expected after six months of sloth-like laziness around here.  Both kids are pleasant enough about getting up and going to school, so I think they missed it a little.  Carter isn't a fan of having to part from his beloved YouTube videos to do school at home, so we have some work to do there on managing his schedule and transitions.  But overall I think the in-school experience has been positive so far.  And having some alone time at home two days a week (either solo or just the two of us) has been a welcome change after six months of togetherness.

I feel like a lot of things are changing at once, including school, work, the weather, and things around the house.  I guess after so much monotony over the past six months, that's probably much needed.  It's been nice to have our bathroom upgrades done.  I never realized how all of these little issues caused little bits of stress to build up.  When I look at the new sink or notice our pipes are quiet when I start the washer, it dawns on me just how frustrating these plumbing issues were and how they probably created little stress spikes for me all the time.  I feel so relieved to have those things worked out.  On the heels of these updates, I wanted to upgrade the decor.  One of the new wall decorations was visible in the pictures I posted of the sink and shower, but I still had another wall to fix.  

It was time to finally retire the three scrapbook paper pictures (above) that I created for our purple bathroom about 15 years ago.  They worked fine in this bathroom, too, but I decided it was time for a change.  Have you ever looked around at a house where it's clear the decor hasn't changed in years?  Maybe it's your grandparents' house, or maybe it's one of those crazy houses that go viral online because they look untouched for decades.  Have you ever been like, "How does that even happen?  How can you just leave your house looking the same for so long?"  And it occurred to me as we hit 10 years in this house that most of our decorations--aside from a few seasonal ones or minor additions here and there--haven't changed much since we moved here.  While in most cases that's fine because I still like a lot of what we have, it's probably okay for me to make some changes if the mood strikes.  So I got the "Relax and Accept the Crazy" sign a while back.  I bought a new glass pumpkin a few weeks ago because the Hilton Apple Fest is canceled so I won't see my pumpkin guy this year.  As for the bathroom, I found a cute picture the same day I bought the glass pumpkin, and that was going to be my new centerpiece.  But when I tried to add some other things to it, nothing was looking right.  I guess I'm not good at the seemingly random, asymmetric wall decor thing.  I was scouring Pinterest for more ideas, and suddenly it occurred to me that I should use some of my beloved beach glass as an accent.  It is the right colors--white and turquoise with touches of green (and blue just for fun)--but how could I do it?  After finding a couple DIYs, I figured I could do it with a couple cheap frames (literally, they had to have the cheap bending metal tabs that hold on the back of the frame so there was room for the glass).  I tried one unsuccessful 8x10 attempt with a cheap Walmart frame and a dollar store frame to have double layered glass, but it didn't look quite right because there wasn't enough glass and the coloring just wasn't right with the wallpaper in the background.  I probably could have used the same frames I had up there, but their glass (plastic) was pretty beat and I remembered I had a pack of three small IKEA frames my mom gave me once (unused) from a garage sale.  They were plain wood so I knew they had to be painted.  First I tried to mix up a blue to match the tile, but neither solid nor a distressed look with white looked right against the wallpaper, so I opted to go all white and buy some scrapbook paper to go in the background.  I tried three different ones--a water pattern (like looking in a pool), a speckled/marbled blue, and one that faded from blue to white.  They were all pretty good, but the speckled one won out.  I think it turned out pretty cool!

As for the old decorations, I copied a cute sign idea I saw on Pinterest to reuse one of them.  I bought some letters and changed out the purple paper for more blue.  This now sits on the shelf above the toilet...

It's a nice nod to the old stuff but helps us move past the purple phase a bit more.

I replaced one more purple decoration on the shelf, and that was it.  I like that it's a bit more modern and has a sense of humor, too.  And it was all pretty cheap, too!

Even though things are busier, I'm still trying to find a little random beauty in the world to spice things up.  I dragged Carter outside with me last weekend while Craig and Jacob were away, and we started blowing bubbles.  There were so many big, beautiful ones that I wanted to try to snap pictures, even if my phone camera wasn't great in the evening light.  But they turned out shockingly good!

Also, while my garden is slowing down considerably, the zinnias are still going strong.  

I'm pretty sure this one looked similar to the one above for a while (except pink, not red), but then it appears a whole slew of new petals grew into the center--notice the darker pink ones.  It's so full of petals now!

Last night, Craig and I were able to go out on a date!  My mom was in town because she brought my aunt in for my cousin's garage sale, and she took the kids out for dinner while we got a night out.  Because the weather has cooled into the 50s, we were freaking out trying to figure out what to do, since we didn't want to eat in a restaurant.  We finally picked one with a German biergarten theme that had an outdoor heated patio, but when we got there, inside was empty so we opted to save ourselves from freezing and stay in.  Of course, by the time we were done eating there were a bunch of people there, but the tables were pretty well spaced and we were a solid 10-12 feet from the larger tables, so it wasn't too bad.  Fingers crossed we stay healthy!  But our dinner was fabulous--even if we paid for it a bit with funky digestion.  We started with drinks--a beer for Craig and a cider for me--and this giant pretzel!  The picture doesn't do its size justice!

Craig got a blackened fish sandwich and I got a spicy chicken sandwich--Nashville hot fried chicken with pickles and onion straws.  It was so good...but spicy and greasy!  Each of us only got through our sandwiches and about half of our fries and we were stuffed!

When we left the restaurant, we were around the corner from the Eastman School of Music and my beloved Chihuly, so I dragged Craig around the block to see if it was accessible.  Alas, it wasn't, but we did get to stop in Java's, the local coffee shop, which is the home of the best giant blocks of Rice Krispie treats ever.  They still had a few, so I grabbed one and Craig got a cookie--both for another day, no doubt!  Then we headed back home, and along the way I snapped a shot of the Liberty Pole.  Yes, it looks like a Christmas tree, but it's not!

In retrospect, I should have had him stop so I could hop out and grab the picture of it I have been coveting--directly up from the base of the pole.  It's so cool-looking!

The latest change is that I'm currently in the process of changing over my phone to Craig's old iPhone.  I have a gorgeous new case (so sparkly!) and I can't wait to have a better camera, but the changeover is a pain and I'm always nervous about how long it will take for the service to move.  Thankfully that seems to have happened--or at least, I realized in the middle of a Wegmans trip that I could no longer call or text from my old phone, so I assume we're good now!  I'm so thankful for an app that helped move over photos, contacts, and my calendar, but I decided to do my apps separately just because I knew I wanted to think through a few things.  All of that is done, minus any new apps I have been wanting to download, so the next step is logging back into everything and hoping I can remember passwords!  I have a lot of adjusting to do from using Androids since the stone ages of iOS with my 4th generation iPod Touch, whose functionality is nothing like a newer iPhone.  We'll see how it goes!

I suppose it's nice to have a little excitement these days to keep us on our toes and keep things interesting.  I hope we settle in a bit soon and find a happy medium so everything gets easier but keeps the interest!  But at least we're officially off to a decent start!

Back to School! (Well, sort of...)

Months ago when the pandemic first got going and it became clear it was going to stick around for a while, I frequently wondered how we'd survive through not only the end of the school year with both kids home (and Carter fighting schoolwork like crazy), but also more than two additional months of summer vacation with very little structure.  It seemed overwhelming to think of all that time without any outside activities or interaction.  Jacob ended up getting some through basketball, but Carter has been a hermit, which pretty much confirmed my fears of a summer without structure.  I'm not sure what was harder--dealing with Carter's schooling or managing the constant summertime mess of bored kids, too much screen time, and Jacob's constant frustration with Carter's disinterest in doing anything with him.  Both were exhausting in different ways, though if I'm honest, as summer wore on, exhaustion won out and Carter's screen time went through the roof as a result, just because work had to be done and I didn't have it in me to keep battling.  It was terrible parenting, but mentally I am just spent so I'm choosing my battles.  I very well might regret it later, but I'm not sure what alternative would have been feasible given the circumstances.

Well, six months later, here we are, ready to start school again.  We made it through both spring schooling AND a crazy yet boring summer.  I'm sure we were hoping for a more complete resolution to this pandemic by now, but that hasn't come quite yet.  So a weird school year it will be.

Jacob started yesterday.  

He's going in person all five days.  Back to uniforms and lunch packing and early wake-ups and the long commute for the first time in six months.  He went to a half day orientation on Tuesday, which they always do, but this year it was focused on a lot of their new rules and restrictions to work around COVID.  He seemed to be in decent spirits after that because his class has gotten much bigger (not sure if it's due to Catholic schools shutting down, kids aging out of schools that end at 6th, or all of the people that wanted five-day attendance), including some kids he's played basketball with.  But he was less thrilled after day 1 because he wasn't in class with any of those kids.  Luckily, after today he was much happier because his B-Day schedule did include some of the new kids, which will hopefully mean he can build some new friendships.  He hasn't seemed phased by the masking or any of the current restrictions (although the lack of locker access for now would drive me nuts!), so I guess that's good.  He even said that if he was able to do fully remote (which we didn't think they were offering but it now seems they are), he wouldn't.  So that's progress!

After I dropped Jacob off on his first day, I realized I'd have enough time when I got home to squeeze in a 5K run before work.  There was a work-based remote 5K we were being encouraged to do, and I'd been putting it off because I have some sort of leg problem (either high hamstring tendinopathy or piriformis syndrome--or maybe both) that's been bugging me much of the summer but has only gotten worse since I've been back to working full time.  I suspect it might have something to do with my chair or desk posture, though I'd had what I thought was a tight hamstring for most of the summer.  Running is the one thing that irritates it like no other activity, but I'd rested it almost three weeks so I wanted to try and it was a pleasant morning for it.  Work requested documentation, so here are my before and after shots...

My time was pretty decent - 32:34 - considering I was going slow to baby my leg.  I've been paying for it ever since, mind you, and probably will be for a solid week.  At least until I finally call a chiropractor and find out how to fix it once and for all.  But it was nice to start out the day with a run before I even sat down to work!

Oh, and I'm also still having fun with flowers.  The other day I came out to discover a new color of morning glory--pink!

And then I went out yesterday and realized that this one was different than others in this medium purple hue.  I've seen lavender stripes, reddish-purple stripes, and darker purple stripes, but these were a bit more hot pink!  I don't think it's just lighting or the camera.  I keep looking at the pics to be sure and marvel at the subtle differences.

Today was Carter's first day...sort of!  We didn't have to wake up too early or get moving too quickly, because he didn't have a bus to catch.  We leisurely took his picture before I sat down for work and he ran back to YouTube (ugh).

He didn't have to do anything until 11am when it was time for his class meet and greet.  He got to test out his new desk area in a corner of the dining room for the first time. 

He got to "meet" his teacher and see the kids in the class (well, most of them--quite a few didn't make it into the call, which only makes me worry even more about the kids doing remote learning).  He has a couple kids from last year's class and I think someone from his Kindergarten class, but it seems like most of them are new to him--and even among those he'll only be in class with maybe half of them.  His teacher seemed nice and upbeat today, although she's clearly struggling a bit with the technology.  Beyond that meeting and another tomorrow, he just has a bunch of videos to watch that will help prepare him for the year, plus 30 minutes of reading and 30 minutes of physical activity (ugh) each day.  He won't actually be in school until Tuesday, so we have a bit of a wait before he gets the classroom experience.  We already struggled a bit with timing and breaks and not asking 200 times during the 30-minute reading session how long he has left, but I hope that he gets a little more settled in this new routine once he gets an every-few-days reminder that school is still a real thing.  Time will tell.

So, school has begun.  The weather has been really cloudy, somewhat cool, and just generally blah lately, which is making me extra sad about fall's arrival.  I like fall, just not what comes after it.  I miss what we leave behind, too--flip flops, no jackets, lots of sun, pool time, more free time, ice cream outings, etc.  I appreciate a little more structure right now, though it does add other stressors into the mix.  For example, we've been trying to keep the kids off the bus, but I think I'm going to give it up for Jacob's afternoon return because it's a giant pain to stop work for 50 minutes to go get him though early rush hour traffic, particularly with Carter in tow.  And the timing for getting Carter on his days complicates things further.  Carter's school is close so that seems a bit easier to maintain--and good thing since his bus is currently still set up to go to the afterschool program, which we're not doing this year (not yet, at least).  I'll switch it eventually, but that trip's a lot easier than Jacob's so I'm OK with that one for now.  I figure that Jacob is already in a classroom all day, so what's another hour?  At least bus windows are open for as long as the weather holds up.  It's a tough decision but I don't want to resent that drive from doing it a bit too much.  We might have to do it if he ever gets to play basketball for school, but they just postponed fall sports to spring so I'm losing confidence that Modified Basketball will be in our future.

Anyway, my brain is full for tonight.  Just too many things to think about right now, so I'm sure there are first day things I wanted to mention but am forgetting.  More soon I'm sure...and if nothing else I'm sure I'll have thoughts on Craig and me getting some alone time in the house on Tuesday!